Fat continuous food product

ABSTRACT

Fat continuous food products which comprise a dispersed aqueous phase a primary emulsifier, polyglycerol polyricinoleate, one or more co-emulsifiers, wherein the dispersed aqueous phase comprises a specific amount of protein and wherein the solid fat content of the fat is below 6% at 35° C. or the ambient temperature of interest, are storage stable to 40° C., stable under spreading, and still show good melting behaviour upon consumption.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a fat continuous, spreadable food product,which comprises a dispersed aqueous phase containing protein and whichcomprises a primary emulsifier polyglycerol polyricinoleate and one ormore co-emulsifiers.

BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION

Fat continuous spreadable food products are used by consumers as anunderlayer on bread or toast or for other purposes such as shallowfrying of food stuff, baking ingredient, hot toppings.

Examples of such spreadable food products are margarine, butter, and lowfat spreads.

There is a desire among consumers for products like margarine to bestable upon storage, even during storage at elevated ambient temperatureof from 25 to 40° C.

It is known that use of polyglycerol polyricinoleate as an emulsifier inwater in oil compositions improves the stability of these compositions.In the prior art this compound has especially been used for improvingthe stability of low fat spreads. It's use in high fat spreads of 50 to90 wt % fat, especially 70 to 90 wt % fat which are subject of thecurrent invention is not widely known.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,773,073 aims at providing a stable oil in water emulsionwith a fat level of from 10 to 70 wt % by using as an emulsifier apolyglycerol fatty acid ester the main constituting fatty acid componentof which is erucic acid. Despite their alleged stability we have foundthat such compositions still do not show the desired stability,especially when the fat level is raised above 70 wt %.

Furthermore U.S. Pat. No. 3,966,632 discloses a vegetable oil emulsioncontaining from 1 to 10 wt % of water and polyglycerol ester of12-hydroxy-9 octadecenoic acid of dimerized fatty acids of soy bean oil.This emulsifier is said to impart stability to the emulsion. Howeverthere is still a desire to improve the stability of such compositionsespecially at ambient temperature.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,306,449 discloses the use of a wide range ofemulsifiers, among which is polyglycerol polyricinoleate for inclusionin a water in oil spread comprising a preferred fat level of 30 to 40 wt% triglycerides.

It is an object of the current invention to provide a food product whichis stable under storage at ambient and higher temperatures, spreadseasily and shows good organoleptic properties; for example theseproducts do not give a sandy mouth feel.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It has surprisingly been found that a fat continuous product whichcomprises a specific amount of protein in the dispersed aqueous phaseand a fat which has a low solids content at a temperature of 35° C. orabove, fulfils the objectives as indicated.

Therefore the invention relates to a fat continuous spreadable foodproduct comprising a dispersed aqueous phase, a primary emulsifierpolyglycerol polyricinoleate, and one or more co-emulsifiers, whereinthe amount of fat is from 50 to 90 wt %, preferably from 70 to 90 wt %,the amount of polyglycerol polyricinoleate is from 0.05 to 5 wt %, theamount of co-emulsifier is up to 0.5 wt % and wherein the dispersedaqueous phase comprises from 0.1 to 0.9 wt % protein on total productand wherein the solid fat content of the fat is below 6% at 35° C.

In a further aspect the invention relates to a process for thepreparation of these products.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to spreadable food products. Spreadable is definedas being easily spread with a knife on a substrate such as bread,without tearing the bread at the ambient temperature of the productduring spreading.

In the description and claims where weight % is used this is weight % ontotal product weight unless otherwise is indicated.

The products according to the invention are desirably stable understorage at temperatures at or above ambient temperature. This storagestability is determined by the test described in the examples.

Products according to the invention show a phase separation of less than5 wt % after storage at 35° C., preferably 40° C., for 10 weeks, morepreferably 26 weeks.

Products according to the invention comprise polyglycerolpolyricinoleate, which is commercially available under the name AdmulWOL from Quest-International. This ingredient is generally known to bean excellent water in oil emulsifier.

The amount of polyglycerol polyricinoleate in the products of theinvention is from 0.05 to 5 wt % on total product weight. Higher amountslead to products that do not easily de-emulsify in the mouth uponconsumption and will hence not show the desired organoleptic properties.Food products comprising polyglycerol polyricinoleate in amounts below0.05 wt % are not stable under elevated storage temperatures and showphase separation upon storage at 35° C. for several weeks. Preferablythe amount of polyglycerol polyricinoleate in food products 0.5according to the invention is from 0.2 to 0.4 wt %.

Without wishing to be bound by any theory, applicants believe that thesurprisingly good storage stability combined with a good meltingbehaviour, are due to the presence of the powerful, water-in-oilemulsifier (w/o), polyglycerol polyricinoleate, in combination with aspecifically low amount of protein.

The aqueous phase comprises a protein in an amount of from 0.1 to 0.9 wt% on total product.

The protein can be any protein but the protein source is preferablyselected from the group comprising milk powders such as skim milkpowder, butter milk powder, sodium caseinate, sour whey, denatured whey,and soy protein or a combination thereof. The most preferred protein iswhey protein.

The amount of protein is from 0.1 to 0.9 wt % on total product weight.Lower amounts will not lead to good oral properties and higher amountswere found to negatively influence the emulsion stability of theproduct. Preferably the amount of protein is from 0.1 to 0.6 wt %, morepreferred from 0.2 to 0.5 wt %.

To ensure homogeneous distribution of the aqueous phase in thecontinuous fat phase, the droplet size distribution D_(3,3) of thedispersed aqueous phase is preferably less than 20 μm, more preferablyfrom 4 to 10 μm. The method to determine D_(3,3) is illustrated in theexamples.

It will be appreciated that the droplet size can be controlled byadjusting the processing conditions in the unit operations: e.g. higherrotational speed in a scraped surface heat exchanger will producecorrespondingly smaller water droplet size distributions.

The food product according to the invention comprises from 50 to 90 wt%, preferably 60 to 90 wt %, more preferably 70 to 90 wt % of a fat.Even more preferably the amount of fat is from 75 to 85 wt %, morepreferably from 75 to 80 wt %.

The fat can be a single fat or a combination of fats. The fat orcombination of fats is selected such that the solid fat content is below6% at 35° C., preferably below 6% at 35° C. and above, more preferablybelow 5% at 35° C., even more preferred below 3% at 35° C.

For all embodiments, it is preferred that the lower limit of the solidfat content at 35° C. is at least 1.5%.

Most preferred the fat or combination of fats is selected such that thesolid fat content is from 2 to 3% at 35° C.

The method to determine solid fat content is described in the examples.

If products are desired that are storage stable at lower temperatures ofstorage, which still show good melting properties upon consumption, thesolid fat content is preferably below 6% at the desired storagetemperature. Therefore in an alternative embodiment, the inventionrelates to food products wherein the solid fat content of the fat or fatblend is below 6 wt % at a temperature at or above 20° C., morepreferred at or above 25° C.

The fat or fat blend may comprise vegetable or animal fats, which may behydrogenated, interesterified or fractionated. Suitable animal fats mayconsist of butterfat tallow or hydrogenated fish oil. Suitable vegetablefats can for example be selected from the group comprising bean oil,sunflower oil, palm kernel oil, coconut oil, palm oil, rapeseed oil,cotton seed oil, maize oil, or their fractions, or a combinationthereof. Interesterified fat blends of these fats or optionally withother fats are also encompassed in the invention. The most preferred fatsources are palm oil and bean oil.

In addition to the primary water-in-oil emulsifier polyglycerolpolyricinoleate, the food product according to the invention comprisesanother emulsifier, the co-emulsifier. This co-emulsifier is preferablyalso a water-in-oil emulsifier. More preferably this co-emulsifier isselected from the group comprising distilled monoglycerides, citric acidesters of monoglycerides, di-acetyl acetic acid esters ofmonoglycerides, lactic acid esters of monoglyceride, mono-diglycerides,polyglycerol esters of fatty acids or sorbitan esters of fatty acids.

The most preferred co-emulsifier is a distilled monoglyceride. Even morepreferred are combinations of a monoglyceride comprising a saturatedfatty acid residue and a monoglyceride comprising an unsaturated fattyacid residue.

The amount of co-emulsifier depends on the type and effectiveness of theemulsifier selected and can be determined by the person skilled in theart. Other factors influencing the amount of co-emulsifier that isrequired to obtain storage stable products are the amount of fat and theamount of polyglycerol polyricinoleate.

As a general guidance the amount of emulsifier is preferably from 0.05to 0.5 wt %, more preferred from 0.1 to 0.5 wt %, most preferred from0.15 to 0.4 wt %.

In case combinations are used of a monoglyceride comprising a saturatedfatty acid residue and a monoglyceride comprising an unsaturated fattyacid residue, their total amount is preferably from 0.3 to 0.4 wt %.

The pH of the aqueous phase can be set to the desired value, amongothers to influence acidic or basic taste impression and to influencemicrobial stability. Preferably the pH of the aqueous phase in foodproducts according to the invention is from 4.3 to 5.5.

The food products according to the invention optionally contain otheringredients such as preservatives, vitamins, taste and flavourcomponents, colorants such as beta-carotene, anti-oxidants, or other(non-)starch based stabilisers, or thickeners.

The food product according to the invention is preferably essentiallyfree of starches.

According to another embodiment the products are also essentially freeof gelatin.

In this context the term essentially free of means a level of less than0.1 wt %, more preferred less than 0.01 wt %, even more preferred lessthan 0.001 wt %.

If the food product is intended for use as a shallow frying agent,preferably an antispattering agent is included in the composition.Antispattering agents serve to reduce spattering of the composition uponheating in a frying pan to about 150° C. Spattering is believed to becaused by explosive evaporation of water droplets which are present asthe dispersed aqueous phase. The method to determine spattering isillustrated in the examples.

Examples of suitable anti-spattering agents include lecithins, citricacid esters, salt and silica particles.

The food product according to the invention can be prepared by anysuitable process to prepare such products.

In a preferred process, fat, emulsifier, and optionally further fatphase ingredients are heated such that the fat has melted, followed bymixing with an aqueous phase comprising the protein.

The mixing of the fat phase and the aqueous phase is preferably carriedout by using a series of processing equipment, or unit operations, whichare common for production of margarine. For example the use of a pinstirrer in combination with a high shear heat exchanger unit, optionallyrepeating these unit operations several times, is suitable for thepreparation of the food products according to the invention.

After mixing of the aqueous phase and the fat phase the resultingproduct is filled into packaging material. Filling is preferably at atemperature range from 5 to 15° C.

The invention is now illustrated by the following non-limiting examples.

EXAMPLES

General

Storage Stability Test

Food product was stored in a plastic container at 10, 20, 30, 35 and 40°C. for up to 26 weeks. After storage the amount of phase separation wasdetermined by visual examination of the product surface. Storage stableproducts show a phase separation of less than 5 wt % upon storage at 35°C. for at least 10 weeks, preferably at least 26 weeks. Preferably thephase separation is less than 5 wt % upon storage at 40° C.

Method to Determine D_(3,3)

The water droplet size was measured using a well known low resolutionNMR measurement method. Reference is made to Alderliesten, M.;Part.Part. Syst. Charact. 8 (1991), 237-241.

Method to Determine Solid Fat Content

The solid fat content can be measured by a suitable analytical methodsuch as NMR. The method used is low resolution NMR with Bruker Minispecapparatus. Reference is made to the Bruker minispec application notes4,5 and 6.

The percentage of solid fat determined by the low resolution NMRtechnique is defined as the ratio of the response obtained from thehydrogen nuclei in the solid phase and the response arising from all thehydrogen nuclei in the sample. The product of this ratio and one hundredis termed the low resolution NMR solids percent. No correction is madefor variations in the proton density between solid and liquid phase. TheNMR solids percent for a sample measured at t ° C. was given the symbolN_(t).

Suitable instruments adapted to determine the solids fat content are theBruker Minispecs p20i™, pc20™, pc120™, pc120s™, NMS120™ and MQ20™.

Stabilization and tempering procedure was as follows:

-   -   melt fat at 80° C.    -   5 minutes at 60° C.    -   60 minutes at 0° C.    -   30-35 minutes at each chosen measuring temperature.        Spattering Value Determination

The spattering behaviour of food products according to the invention wasevaluated after storage of the products for 1 or 8 days at 5° C.

Primary spattering (SV1) was assessed under standardised conditions inwhich an aliquot of a food product was heated in a glass dish and theamount of fat spattered onto a sheet of paper held above the dish wasassessed after the water content of the food product had been driven offby heating.

Secondary spattering (SV2) was assessed under standardised conditions inwhich the amount of fat spattered onto a sheet of paper held above thedish is assessed after injection of a quantity of 10 ml water into thedish.

In assessment of both primary and secondary spattering value about 25 gfood product was heated in a glass dish on an electric plate to about205° C. The molten fat that spattered out of the pan by force ofexpanding evaporating water droplets was caught on a sheet of papersituated 25 cm above the pan. The resulting spattering pattern obtainedwas compared with a set of standard pictures numbered from 0-10 wherebythe number of the photo which best resembled the spattering pattern wasrecorded as the spattering value. A score of 10 indicates no spattering,whilst a zero indicates very bad spattering. The general indication isas follows. Score Comments 10 Excellent 8 Good 6 Acceptable 4Unsatisfactory for SV1, almost acceptable for SV2 2 very poor

Typical results for household margarines (80 wt % fat) are 8 for primaryspattering (SV1) and 5 for secondary spattering (SV2) under theconditions of the above mentioned test.

Example 1-4

Ingredients are listed in table 1 TABLE 1 ingredients in wt % ingredient1 2 3 4 5 Fat# 79.6 79.6 79.6 79.6 55 Hymono 8903^(tm) from Quest Int.0.2 0.2 0.1 Lecithin 0.1 Admul WOL^(tm) from Quest Int. 0.5 0.5 0.3 0.30.3 Admul7803^(tm) 0.2 0.2 (Unsaturated mono-and diglyceride mix fromQuest Int.) Sweet whey powder 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.3 Salt 2.6 2.6 2.62.6 0.6 water Up to Up to Up to Up to Up to 100% 100% 100% 100% 100 wt %

-   #:the fat used was:-   Example 1,3: a mixture of 65% palm oil and 35% of a dry fractionated    palm olein fraction-   Example 2,4: mixture of 50% palm oil, 10% of a dry fractionated palm    stearine fraction and 40% sunflower oil.-   Example 5: mixture of bean oil and hardened palm oil

All compositions contained a small amount of colourant, flavourcomponent and preservative. Example 5 contained additionally 0.1 wt %citric acid.

All blends of example 1-4 have a solid fat content of 2.7% at 35° C.

The N line (% solids at specific temperature) for the fat blend ofexample 5 was: N10=19, N20=11.2, N30=4.7, N35=<2.

Processing

In a vessel a mixture was prepared of the fat, mono and di glyceride,Admul WOL, Antioxidant, and colorant at a temperature of about 60° C. Inanother, separate vessel a mixture was made of sweet whey powder andwater which was heated to a temperature of 85° C. for 3 minutes. Thismixture was cooled to 60° C. and subsequently mixed with the oil phasein a pre-mix tank at 60° C., followed by cooling and shearing in aseries of A- and C-units™ repeated as necessary to achieve a plasticstructure which could be easily packed at around 10° C. in a suitablepackaging material. 1 2 3 4 5 Storage No phase No phase No phase Nophase No phase stability separation separation separation separationseparation test (26 at 35° C. at 35° C. at 35° C. at 35° C. at 35° C.weeks) Melting Good (1) Good (1) Good (1) Good (1) Good (1) behaviour

-   Melting behaviour was determined by a test panel of 10 persons on a    scale of 1 to 3. 1 indicates fast melting with good release of    flavours and taste components-   2 indicates average melting behaviour-   3 indicates slow melting, leaving a sticky, thick, fatty impression    upon consumption.

1. Fat continuous spreadable food product comprising a dispersed aqueousphase, a primary emulsifier polyglycerol polyricinoleate, and one ormore co-emulsifiers, characterised in that the amount of fat is from 50to 90 wt %, preferably 70 to 90 wt %, the amount of polyglycerolpolyricinoleate is from 0.05 to 5 wt %, the amount of co-emulsifier isup to 0.5 wt % and in that the dispersed aqueous phase comprises 0.1 to0.9 wt % protein on total product, and in that the solid fat content ofthe fat is below 6% at 35° C.
 2. Food product according to claim 1,wherein the protein source is selected from the group comprising milkpowders such as skim milk powder, butter milk powder, sodium caseinate,sour whey, denatured whey, and soy protein or a combination thereof. 3.Food product according to claim 1 wherein the amount of protein is from0.2 to 0.5 wt %.
 4. Food product according to claim 1 wherein thedroplet size distribution D3,3 of the dispersed aqueous phase is lessthan 20 μm, preferably from 4 to 10 μm.
 5. Food product according toclaim 1 wherein the amount of fat is from 75 to 85 wt %.
 6. Food productaccording to claim 1 wherein the solid fat content is below 5% at 35°C., more preferred below 3% at 35° C., most preferred from 2 to 3% at35° C.
 7. Food product according to claim 1 wherein the amount ofpolyglycerol polyricinoleate is from 0.2 to 0.4 wt %.
 8. Food productaccording to claim 1 wherein the co-emulsifier is selected from thegroup comprising distilled monoglycerides, citric acid esters ofmonoglycerides, di-acetyl acetic acid esters of monoglycerides, lacticacid esters of monoglyceride, mono-diglycerides, polyglycerol esters offatty acids or sorbitan esters of fatty acids.